PhD graduates should be entitled to federal income if they are under or unemployed

R

rumblebear

CAGiversary!
It's simply inexcusable that MAJORITY of PhD graduates (in all fields) are either unemployed or underemployed. They are mentally gifted and dedicated enough to spend those extra ~6 years on advanced education and tuition debts, yet once they graduate most places will not hire them because they are "overqualified" and "too specialized". That leaves just Academia which has been cutting full time teaching staff in favor of exploiting vast pool of desperate PhD graduates through adjunct professors and post-doc fellowships positions. Those positions offer an abysmal ~$15,000 annual salary WITH NO BENEFITS and job safety! How could our country treat our gifted citizens this way? Even high school drop outs make much more than that! I propose that PhD graduates be granted a large annual federal salary if they are under or unemployed. Our country need to make a clear stand that higher education is favored and valued, because right now PhD graduates are essentially blacklisted from jobs, and they cannot simply omit their PhD degree from their resumes as employers will do background checks for them.
 
Is your art appreciation..European history, or black studies degree not turning out to be in great demand? :)

lolol.. Yes, we do value education buddy..but the ultimate value placed on any degree is going to be by the person who hires you to do research in that field. If there is no demand for your particular specialty, I hate to say it..but you've wasted your time. If the area is in a slump, you'll need to do what everyone else on earth does..find something else to do until the right opportunity comes along. If you chose a field you were interested in but is of little real use in the real world (aside from teaching it to others), you should probably cut your losses and find a different field of study.
 
Yeah, I have a Ph D and can't agree with any of that (joke post or not). Getting a degree doesn't entitle you to shit.

And most of us didn't get the degree for money as the main incentive. Especially people with Ph D's in social sciences like myself. I can't complain, I'm doing quite well for myself. But I could certainly have made more money (and got into the full time work force a lot sooner than age 30) buy going into business or various other professions.

But I chose to do something I enjoyed and felt was important/rewarding. Again, can't complain as I make very decent money and have a fair degree of job security at my current job (at least until tenure review!), but it's not something you do for the money. It requires putting off entering the workforce too long, and while the pay is decent it's not great if you calculate out your actual hourly rate based on how much time you really put in etc.
 
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joke post or not. I suspect a lot of folks are thinking it. I respect people who have dedicated more time than average to learning, but in my work I have seen plenty of worthless people with post graduate degrees.
 
[quote name='xxDOYLExx']joke post or not. I suspect a lot of folks are thinking it.[/QUOTE]

I bet not. Smart people generally have a great deal of options. If they choose to get a PHD they typically know what they're signing up for.

I have to disagree that this is a quality joke post, as a troll I give it a 2 out of 5.
 
It may give them options and it may mean they are smart, but it doesn't mean they have common sense or a strong work ethic. It also doesn't absolve them from a false sense of entitlement. This is not the first time I have heard proponents of higher education demand special treatment because of their "sacrifice".
 
I strongly doubt rumblebear is a "proponent of higher education."

There are no doubt people who have those views, but I can't say I've met any. People that feel us academics are underpaid? Sure. But not the kind of gross sense of entitlement in the OP. Again, we all knew what we were getting into in terms of salary, stress, workload etc.
 
[quote name='xxDOYLExx']It may give them options and it may mean they are smart, but it doesn't mean they have common sense or a strong work ethic. It also doesn't absolve them from a false sense of entitlement. This is not the first time I have heard proponents of higher education demand special treatment because of their "sacrifice".[/QUOTE]

If you believe rumblebear at face value then I have a bridge to sell you. I don't hang out with many academics but I have never heard this. What I do hear is a bunch of anti-intellectual bullshit propogated by the far-right.

Any time anti-intellectualism rises to the fore you can be sure you're talking to a budding fascist.
 
like i said before. I have much respect for folks like dmaul. I was just drawing on my college days and personal experience.

FTR I do believe that OP is a troll.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I strongly doubt rumblebear is a "proponent of higher education."

There are no doubt people who have those views, but I can't say I've met any. People that feel us academics are underpaid? Sure. But not the kind of gross sense of entitlement in the OP. Again, we all knew what we were getting into in terms of salary, stress, workload etc.[/QUOTE]

Honestly, as far as your contribution to society I believe you are underpaid, just as people who add little to no value like wall street bankers are vastly vastly vastly vastly overpaid.

But really that's life, and as you said you're fairly happy to the job so I don't really see any tragedy in it. I'd rather focus on fair compensation for the poor, that's a much more urgent concern.
 
[quote name='camoor']
But really that's life, and as you said you're fairly happy to the job so I don't really see any tragedy in it. I'd rather focus on fair compensation for the poor, that's a much more urgent concern.[/QUOTE]

Agree 100%.
 
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